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The Effect of Marriage on Education of Immigrants: Evidence from a Policy Reform Restricting Spouse Import

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Author Info
Helena Skyt Nielsen () (AKF, University of Aarhus and IZA)
Nina Smith () (University of Aarhus and IZA)
Aycan Celikaksoy () (AKF, SDI and University of Aarhus)

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Abstract

We investigate the effect of immigrants’ marriage behavior on dropout from education. To identify the causal effect, we exploit a recent Danish policy reform which generated exogenous variation in marriage behavior by a complete abolishment of spouse import for immigrants below 24 years of age. We find that the abrupt change of marriage behavior following the reform is associated with improved educational attainment of young immigrants. The causal impact of marriage on dropout for males is estimated to be around 20 percentage points, whereas the effect for females is small and mostly insignificant. We interpret the results as being consistent with a scenario where family investment motives drive the behavior of males, while the association between marriage and dropout for females is driven by selection effects. The estimated causal effect varies considerably across subgroups.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 2899.

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Length: 36 pages
Date of creation: Jul 2007
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2899

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Related research
Keywords: education; dropout; immigrants; spouse import; marriage migration; family investment model;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn & Joan Y. Moriarty & Andre Portela Souza, 2003. "The Role of the Family in Immigrants' Labor-Market Activity: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 429-447, March. [Downloadable!]
  2. Baker, Michael & Benjamin, Dwayne, 1997. "The Role of the Family in Immigrants' Labor-Market Activity: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 705-27, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. van Ours, Jan C. & Veenman, Justus, 2002. "From Parent to Child: Early Labor Market Experiences of Second-Generation Immigrants in the Netherlands," IZA Discussion Papers 649, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Helena Skyt Nielsen & Michael Svarer, 2006. "Educational Homogamy: Preferences or Opportunities?," IZA Discussion Papers 2271, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  5. Chiara Monfardini & Rosalba Radice, 2008. "Testing Exogeneity in the Bivariate Probit Model: A Monte Carlo Study," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 70(2), pages 271-282, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Stephen J. Trejo & Brian Duncan, 2006. "Ethnic Identification, Intermarriage, and Unmeasured Progress by Mexican Americans," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0602, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn & Joan Y. Moriarty & Andre Portela Souza, 2002. "The Role of the Family in Immigrants' Labor-Market Activity: Evidence from the United States," NBER Working Papers 9051, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Weiss, Yoram, 1993. "The formation and dissolution of families: Why marry? Who marries whom? And what happens upon divorce," Handbook of Population and Family Economics, in: M. R. Rosenzweig & Stark, O. (ed.), Handbook of Population and Family Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 81-123 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "An Evaluation of Instrumental Variable Strategies for Estimating the Effects of Catholic Schooling," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(4). [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Rosholm, Michael & Husted, Leif & Skyt Nielsen, Helena, 2002. "Integration over generationer? Andengenerationsindvandrernes uddannelse," CLS Working Papers 02-1, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Centre for Labour Market and Social Research. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Philip Oreopoulos, 2006. "Estimating Average and Local Average Treatment Effects of Education when Compulsory Schooling Laws Really Matter," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 152-175, March. [Downloadable!]
  12. Regina T. Riphahn, 2003. "Cohort effects in the educational attainment of second generation immigrants in Germany: An analysis of census data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 711-737, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Kantarevic, Jasmin, 2004. "Interethnic Marriages and Economic Assimilation of Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 1142, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  14. Gang, Ira N. & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 1999. "Is Child like Parent? Educational Attainment and Ethnic Origin," IZA Discussion Papers 57, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  15. Imbens, Guido W & Angrist, Joshua D, 1994. "Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 467-75, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Murat Iyigun & Randall P. Walsh, 2005. "Building the Family Nest: Pre-Marital Investments, Marriage Markets and Spousal Allocations," IZA Discussion Papers 1752, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  17. Harriet Duleep & Seth Sanders, 1993. "The decision to work by married immigrant women," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 46(4), pages 677-690, July.
  18. Celikaksoy, Aycan & Nielsen, Helena Skyt & Verner, Mette, 2003. "Marriage Migration: Just another case of positive assortative matching?," Working Papers 03-27, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  19. Colding, Bjorg, 2006. "A dynamic analysis of educational progression of children of immigrants," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 479-492, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Jakobsen, Vibeke & Smith, Nina, 2003. "The Educational Attainment of the Children of the Danish ‘Guest Worker’ Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 749, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  21. Ours, J.C. van & Veenman, J., 2002. "From parent to child : early labor market experiences of second-generation immigrants in the Netherlands," Discussion Paper 105, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  22. Josh Angrist, 2002. "How Do Sex Ratios Affect Marriage And Labor Markets? Evidence From America'S Second Generation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 117(3), pages 997-1038, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. Xin Meng & Robert G. Gregory, 2005. "Intermarriage and the Economic Assimilation of Immigrants," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(1), pages 135-176, January. [Downloadable!]
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Aycan, Çelikaksoy & Lena, Nekby & Saman, Rashid, 2009. "Assortative Mating by Ethnic Background and Education in Sweden: The Role of Parental Composition on Partner Choice," SULCIS Working Papers 2009:7, Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS. [Downloadable!]
  2. Delia Furtado, 2007. "Cross-Nativity Marriages, Gender, and Human Capital Levels of Children," Working papers 2007-33, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Furtado, Delia & Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos, 2008. "Interethnic Marriage: A Choice between Ethnic and Educational Similarities," IZA Discussion Papers 3448, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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